Harvest Monday - September 17, 2012

It was quite the week for peppers and tomatoes and zucchini. The Padrons have been producing in ever increasing numbers, three harvests this week for a total of about 2 1/2 pounds. We aren't tired of them yet!

Pimento de Padrons

Jimmy Nardello's peppers have kept up a steady supply of ripening peppers.

Jimmy Nardello's

I finally got to make a salad of all home grown tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers with some good buffalo mozzarella and fresh picked basil. My husband noted the hint of spice in the Jimmy Nardello's pepper that I included in this salad. It's a very interesting sweet pepper with definite spice but no heat, I like it very much. I wonder what it might taste like dried, if I can restrain myself from eating all of them fresh.

Two Salads in One

Powery mildew is gradually taking over the zucchini plants but it has not slowed it down much. The cucumber production has slowed to a trickle but the plants are hanging in there so I hope to be harvesting a few more over the coming weeks.

Rosabec, Jaune Flamme, Nyagous, Wheatly's Frost Resistant tomatoes
Green Fingers cucumbers, da Fiore zucchini, and Neckarkönigin beans

Melrose is another sweet Italian/American frying pepper. I used this bunch in a stir fry of eggplant and ground pork with oyster sauce the other night, one of my husband's favorite dishes - there were no leftovers.

Melrose peppers

Some of the zucchini was sliced and grilled on my stovetop ridged griddle along with some eggplant and herb crusted pork tenderloins and I made a romesco sauce to serve with it all. This was lunch for my book group and the group didn't leave much behind for my husband to munch on.

Pimento de Padron peppers and da Fiore zucchini

The first Odessa Market peppers. These start out a beautiful pale green, then turn a bit orange before becoming a glowing red. The flesh is medium thick and very sweet. I chopped these up and put them in another tomato, pepper, and cucumber salad.

Odessa Market peppers

The start of another tomato harvest. The Wheatly's Frost Resistant cherry tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. They are not and will never be as productive as the Sunshine Cherry tomatoes and I still haven't decided if I like them very much, I don't hate them, but they don't wow me. I'm liking the Sunshine Cherry tomatoes very much, they have flavor that rivals Sungold but the plants are not so huge and overly productive as the Sungolds. The last time I grew Sungolds (years ago) I got so sick of harvesting the tomatoes off of one plant that I gave up and let a lot of them rot on the vine. And the vines of the Sungolds are so huge and vigorous that they just take over and smother their neighbors. The Sunshine Cherry is a much smaller plant, but it's putting out enough tomatoes to keep the two of us happy and still share with friends.

Nyagous, Wheatly's Frost Resistant, Jaune Flamme

and Sunshine Cherry tomatoes

and da fiore zucchini, Shephards Ramshorn, Sunnybrook pimento,
Lady bell pepper, Green Fingers and Tasty Green cucumbers

Amish Paste and one Rosabec

and Jimmy Nardello's peppers

and Pimento de Padron peppers

Not photographed this week was the lone harvest of a few Diamond eggplants and a couple of broccoli shoots and a couple of big scallions. And the harvest totals would have been a few pounds greater if I had had the time to harvest the ripe Fiaschetto tomatoes.

Here's the totals for the past week:

Neckarkönigin beans - 10.6 oz. (ounces instead of pounds, whew!)
Apollo broccoli - 2 oz.
Green Fingers Persian cucumbers - 7.8 oz.
Tasty Green Japanese cucumbers - 15.9 oz.
Diamond eggplant - 14.8 oz.
Parade Scallions - 3.6 oz.
Jimmy Nardello's peppers - 13.4 oz.
Lady Bell pepper - 5.8 oz.
Melrose peppers - 4.8 oz.
Odessa Market peppers - 6.7 oz.
Pimento de Padron peppers - 2 lb., 7.8 oz.
Shephard's Ramshorn peppers - 3.7 oz.
Sunnybrook Pimento peppers - 2.8 oz.
Amish Paste tomatoes - 2 lb., 11 oz.
Jaune Flamme tomatoes - 1 lb., 15.2 oz.
Nyagous tomatoes - 1 lb., 10.4 oz.
Rosabec tomatoes - 2 lb., 11.5 oz.
Sunshine Cherry tomatoes - 3 lb., 8.6 oz.
Wheatly's Frost Resistant cherry tomatoes - 7.7 oz.
Da Fiore zucchini - 3 lb., 9 oz.

The total harvests for the week came to - 24 lb., 13.1 oz.
Which brings the totals for the year to - 230 lb., 11 oz.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne on her blog Daphne's Dandelions, head on over there to see what other garden bloggers have been harvesting lately.